Best time to see the northern lights in New Brunswick, Canada
Updated • 05:58 UTC
New Brunswick gets the aurora on 2.1 clear nights in a typical year at Fredericton, its strongest of 5 tracked locations. September is the best month at 0.36 of them, and nights were counted at Kp 6 or higher, which the planetary index last reached on 4 July 2026.
Typical-year figures: a 1996–2026 planetary Kp record crossed with a 2001–2020 cloud normal. They describe a normal year, not tonight — the live Fredericton forecast shows the actual cloud, moon and darkness right now. Check tonight's forecast for Fredericton →
🌟 Best Month
September
0.36 clear nights in a typical year
🌙 Peak Hours
23:00-01:00
Magnetic midnight
⚡ Required Kp
Kp 7.0–9.0
Served for the live forecast; nights counted at Kp 6, last reached 4 July 2026
📍 Strongest location
Aurora on 2.1 clear nights a year, against 1.9 at the weakest of 5 tracked locations
Month by month in New Brunswick
Astronomical darkness, the nights on which planetary Kp reached Kp 6 inside that darkness, the local cloud normal, and what the cloud leaves of the count.
| Month | Astronomical darkness | Opportunity nights | Mean cloud | Clear opportunity nights | Moon-free |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 11.32h | 0.33 | 64.7% | 53% | |
| February | 10.25h | 0.26 | 64.7% | 53.4% | |
| March | 8.67h | 0.46 | 64.1% | 53.8% | |
| April | 6.68h | 0.52 | 67.6% | 55.3% | |
| May | 4.49h | 0.49 | 69.6% | 52.7% | |
| June | 2.97h | 0.23 | 67.8% | 51.5% | |
| July | 3.87h | 0.23 | 63.9% | 53.3% | |
| August | 6.03h | 0.39 | 58.4% | 57% | |
| September | 8.08h | 0.81 | 55.5% | 56.4% | |
| October | 9.8h | 0.91 | 63% | 54.8% | |
| November | 11.06h | 0.91 | 68.4% | 53.8% | |
| December | 11.67h | 0.23 | 67.9% | 54.3% |
Opportunity nights are the whole 1996–2026 record. In the current solar cycle alone (since 2023), September has averaged 1.09 rather than 0.81.
- September: 8.08h of astronomical darkness a night
- September: 0.81 nights reach the Kp threshold inside that darkness
- September: 55.5% mean cloud leaves 0.36 of them clear
- September: 56.4% of those nights are moon-free
Similar timing: Copenhagen , Frederiksberg , Moncton
Higher-odds destinations: Fairbanks , Yellowknife , Tromsø
Every tracked location in New Brunswick
All 5 of them, strongest first. The month column is each location's own best month with its clear nights; the Kp is the threshold its live forecast serves.
| Location | Clear nights a year | Best month | Kp needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fredericton | 2.1 | September (0.36) | Kp 7 |
| Saint John | 2.1 | September (0.36) | Kp 7 |
| Moncton | 2 | September (0.36) | Kp 7 |
| Bathurst | 1.9 | September (0.37) | Kp 6 |
| Miramichi | 1.9 | September (0.37) | Kp 7 |
How these numbers were made
- Evaluated at
- Fredericton, 45.9636° N 66.6431° W — darkness and cloud are properties of that point, not of a region.
- Darkness
- Sun at or below 18° under the horizon (astronomical twilight), sampled every 10 minutes across every year of the Kp record and averaged per night of each month rather than on one representative day.
- Geomagnetic record
- GFZ Potsdam planetary Kp index, 3-hourly, 1996–2026 — 89,662 intervals, licensed CC BY 4.0.
- Cloud
- NASA POWER 20-year monthly climatology (2001–2020), parameter CLOUD_AMT. A monthly mean, not a forecast.
- Moon
- A night counts as moon-free below 35% lunar illumination while the moon is up.
- Auroral oval
- NOAA auroral-oval model, equatorward boundary near magnetic latitude 67 − 2 × Kp. A model estimate shown beside the measured record; it never replaces it.
- Clear opportunity nights
- Nights on which at least one 3-hour Kp interval falls inside local astronomical darkness and reaches the count threshold, scaled by one minus the monthly mean cloud amount.
- Kp threshold
- Nights were counted per location, from Kp 6 at the northern end to Kp 6 at the southern end of the region; Fredericton counts at Kp 6. The Required Kp shown above, Kp 7, is the threshold the live Fredericton forecast serves.
- Dataset version
- Version 2026-09-07, computed offline from the closed record — the page is regenerated, not forecast.
Kp record: GFZ Potsdam (CC BY 4.0). Cloud normal: NASA POWER. How the live forecast is built: methodology page.
Frequently Asked Questions
When can you see the northern lights in New Brunswick?
September is the best month, with 0.36 clear nights in a typical year out of 2.1 across the whole year. Every month of the year carries some chance.
What Kp is needed to see the aurora from New Brunswick?
New Brunswick needs Kp 7 or higher for aurora, Kp 8 for a noticeable display and Kp 9 for a bright one. Across the region that horizon threshold runs from Kp 6 to Kp 7. The NOAA auroral-oval model places the oval overhead at New Brunswick once the planetary index reaches Kp 6. That is a model estimate; the dates on this page come from the measured Kp record instead.
Has the aurora ever been visible from New Brunswick?
Yes. In the 1996–2026 planetary Kp record the index reached Kp 6, the threshold these nights were counted at for New Brunswick, most recently on 4 July 2026. Whether anyone saw it also depended on the cloud, moonlight and darkness of that night, which the Kp record does not carry.
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